At 25,000, cheque-bounce cases in city second highest among UTs

Chandigarh has recorded the second highest number of pending cheque-bounce cases among all Union Territories in the country. As per the latest figures, 25,437 cheque-bounce cases are pending in the Chandigarh District Court.

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Delhi has topped the list with 4,54,653 cases pending till December 18 last. Goa has 11,314 pending cases, Puducherry 6,035, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Diu and Daman has 1,417 cases and Lakshadweep has 13 cheque-bounce cases pending.

Overall, nearly one lakh cases are pending in the Chandigarh District Court. At 25%, the cases account for the highest share of pending cases in all categories.

Kanchan Dewan, advocate of District Bar Association Chandigarh, said there was a need to take urgent steps to reduce the backlog in cheque-bounce cases. She said though the District Court had some designated courts to deal with such cases, these were inadequate given the increase in the number of cases. The city has witnessed a surge in such cases recently as it has become a hub of economic activity of north India.

Rajesh Sharma, another advocate, said to reduce the pendency proper planning was required at all levels. A system should be adopted to settle the cheque-bounce cases in a time-bound manner. Frequent Lok Adalats must be held to deal with such cases as the delay also causes loss to the economy, he added.

The cheque bounce cases are covered under Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (NI Act). The advocate said the Supreme Court had also issued detailed guidelines to all the criminal courts for dealing with NI Act cases, which had to be followed by all.